Be Courteous and Notify

Today I went through an experience i really wish I never have to go through again. Here is a suggestion to everyone, if you are ever talking to someone over the phone, and this probably applies more to MSN/IM, and you are talking about how you are having specific pains and illnesses, make sure if you step away you tell the person who you are talking to that you are stepping away. I already find it irritable when people I'm talking to on MSN suddenly stop messaging for no reason, probably cuause they left the computer or something. But it's even worse when the context of the conversation is something serious.

I was talking to a friend who was complaining about having pains and illnesses and it kind of got me worried. Then suddenly they stopped messaging back, this makes me really worried. I call their cell phone, and no answer. This happens for more than half an hour. Of course I am going to be worried, what real friend wouldn't be? You first tell them you are having all these problems and then you stop replying back for no reason. I would hope that if I ever have physical problems and I was telling someone about them then suddenly stop replying back, that they will worry about me too.

So what did I do, I jumped in the car on my way to their place to make sure they are alright. And I hope my friends would do the same. I really do not feel I overreacted at all, nor do I find it has anything to do with MSN being hard to convey feelings and severity. You start telling someone you are sick, you better tell them how bad it is then. You better tell them that you'll be ok, you better have an actual end to the conversation. Do not leave and not come back for a long period of time. How is anybody supposed to know if anything bad had happened?

So here's a hint to anybody, out of courtesy, tell people you are stepping away when you are talking to them, in any situation. You wouldn't walk away in mid-sentence from a face to face conversation. You wouldn't/shouldn't just hang up for no apparent reason when on the phone. Then the same should go for MSN/IM as well.